NEW MILFORDIN WORLD WAR II

We Thank You!

By: Bob Meli November 6, 2010

I, Bob Meli, thought it only right to explain how I came across the book and to give credit to the person who assembled it. I live in New Milford and was involved with the sports Hall of Fame Committee in town in 2004 and was at Phil Klosak’s homewho was one of the committee members. I mentioned I researched veterans from Hackensack High School and that some of the veterans were from New Milford. Phil then said he had a book on veterans from New Milford and I could make a copy of it. I did and we have been able to post this material on our website for the past six years or so since 2010.

What has moved me recently to make note of the middle school teacher who assembled and recorded the history of the New Milford Servicemen, was the reaction of two students who knew her and commented on her when I mentioned her name. The first was Arthur Simone, a 1948 HHS graduate and Korean War veteran, who I spoke to recently in August 2010. When I mentioned the book and who wrote it, Arthur reacted “Teresa Martin, she was a wonderful women”, he then continued to tell me how he would get in trouble sometimes and as punishment he would have to come after school with other students and help her get mail and packages out to the servicemen overseas that she was keeping in contact with. Arthur said it was quite an operation and she was just great to work with. The other person who I spoke to just this past month, October 2010, Donald Faller, a 1944 HHS graduate, about his brother, Louis Faller, who’s plane disappeared in March 1942 over the Pacific. When I mentioned Teresa Martin, he said, “Oh Teresa Martin, she was just wonderful”.

To think that after close to 70 years, two students, four years apart in graduating from New Milford Middle School, would have the same heartfelt opinion of this teacher, I thought was worth noting. Also, the fact that Teresa Martin, during those war years, took the time to keep in contact and support those young men from New Milford is a testament to her caring heart.

Here is the introduction she wrote to the book with the information she compiled on those veterans from New Milford. The introduction reveals the total commitment of all citizens toward the war effort during World War II. Without this book, we would not know the veterans stories and although her information is brief and to the point on each veteran, they have written volumes on what these servicemen went through. So we thank Teresa M. Martin for her support to the troops during their time in war and the record she left behind so we could know of their sacrifice.